Christine Perri
Wilbur Wright College
cperri@ccc.edu
English 102: The Research Paper:
Myth and Modernity
This is a required research-writing course that asks students to write an 8- to 10-page
research paper, complete with notes and bibliography. It is common for teachers of this
course to design it around a special theme or topic. The theme of this course is “myth and
modernity.” The course asks students to analyze the mythological and archetypal motifs in
the works of four authors—Nathaniel Hawthorne, E. M. Forster, Joseph Conrad, and Jorge
Luis Borges—who are known for employing these motifs in their works. The myths used by
these authors are for the most part classical (Greek and Roman), but at times they work with
Judeo-Christian mythology (for example, the figure of the Devil in Hawthorne’s “Young
Goodman Brown”).
Table of Contents
The contents of this module are as follows:
•
Required texts
•
Challenges and rewards
•
Texts and theme
•
Outline of the course
•
Syllabus
•
Sources
•
“Myth and Archetypes” handout
Required Texts
The following texts are required in this course:
Raymond Clines and Elizabeth Cobb, Research Writing Simplified, 4th ed.
Edith Hamilton, Mythology
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
The Secret Sharer and Other Stories
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown and Other Stories
E. M. Forster, The Collected Tales of E. M. Forster
Jorge Luis Borges, The Aleph and Other Stories, 1933–1969
Challenges and Rewards
Challenges
“Myth and Modernity” contains several challenges, and it is not the easiest way to complete
English 102. However, it is one of the most rewarding courses a student can take. Students
in any 102 class must learn how to write a research paper, with all of the technicalities that
that entails. In any specialized English 102 class (one that has a specific topic or theme),
students must read primary sources (the literature) and secondary sources (the criticism).
Students in my “Myth and Modernity” 102 course must juggle three types of sources instead
of two: they have to read the primary sources, learn certain myths and archetypes, and read
the literary criticism on the works that they analyze in their research papers. Furthermore,
students in this class must pick up the tools of literary analysis in order to see what the
authors are doing with myth. I have found that the most difficult aspect of this course is the
analytical one—getting the students to analyze the primary sources with some sophistication
and to understand the literary criticism in the secondary sources. It helps if a student has
taken a literature course and is drawn to the course because of its content, as opposed to its
convenient time in his or her schedule. However, students can do quite well in the course
even if their last formal encounter with literature occurred in high school; when we discuss
the first few primary sources (short stories), I review the elements of fiction—narrative
techniques, character development, plot, setting, theme, symbol, motif—and this gives
students the basic tools with which to work.
A note: I do not expect students to examine the idea of myth as deeply as Bruno
Bettelheim or Bronislaw Malinowski (writers that I mention on my source sheet) do. Rather,
students are asked to concentrate on how the inclusion of myth in a modern work of
literature enhances that work. The source sheet is a list of works that have inspired me and
that can provide a more extensive discussion of myth for students who want to examine this
subject further.
Rewards
As mentioned above, students learn to see archetypes and classical myths in modern
literature. At times these connections are obvious, at others, more recondite. After students
become more adept at making these connections, the task becomes easier. Eventually, they
begin to see myths and archetypes in other literature they have read in the past, historical and
contemporary events, movies, television shows, etc. Although these venues are not a formal
part of the course, students do bring them up in class discussion, or I might ask them if they
have seen a movie that employs a certain myth or archetype. Their “mythological
consciousness” having been raised, they are able to enjoy most forms of discourse on a
deeper level.
Texts and Theme
I chose Hawthorne, Conrad, Forster, and Borges because, when I was developing this
course, I had to find modern authors who employed myths consistently (not in just one or
two works), so that students could see patterns in the writers’ use of myth. The myths that
the course includes are therefore limited to those that are employed by these four authors.
Nathaniel Hawthorne is famous for his retelling of classical myths for children in A
Wonder Book, but he also uses mythological characters in his more adult stories, such as “The
Artist of the Beautiful,” which includes a character based on Hephaestus, a member of the
Greek pantheon. E. M. Forster creates stand-ins for Pan, Apollo, Daphne, the Sirens, and
Oedipus in his fantastical short stories. Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness is very rich, partly
for its retelling of a sequence in the Aeneid. Lastly, Jorge Luis Borges is well known for his
use of the motif of the labyrinth: Daedalus’ labyrinth, along with Theseus and the Minotaur,
appear in different forms in many of Borges’ stories. These are just a few examples of the
connections that we make between classical and more modern literature in this course. The
works of these four authors are also rich in archetypes, which the students learn to
recognize. Having students see these myths and archetypes come alive in these nineteenthand twentieth-century works goes to the heart of the Great Books philosophy: seeing various
themes, characters, and motifs reworked across space and time. To elaborate: the study of
mythology and archetypes has the following advantages for college students:
1. Myths are an expression of universal elements of human nature and the
subconscious.
2. Myths poetically and symbolically express people’s deepest longings, fears, and
perennial truths—things they may not otherwise be able to face in their own
natures.
3. The study of myths remediates historical and cultural illiteracy.
4. The study of myths gives students a firm basis for their further college studies in
literature, as well as in subject areas like humanities and social studies.
Outline of the Course
Class discussion is devoted to the intricacies and mechanics of writing a research paper and
the analysis of the fiction of the four assigned authors. Each work of fiction that we discuss
is assigned to be read with a relevant section of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology. Students are
encouraged to make parallels between the two works as they are reading them, but if they
don’t see them then, the connections will be revealed in class discussion. For example,
students will be asked to read the section in Mythology that deals with the character of Pan,
along with Forster’s “The Story of a Panic.” In class we will examine the clues that Forster
leaves to hint at the appearance of Pan in the twentieth-century setting of his story.
The following is a list of the fiction works that we read and the classical myths that
appear in them:
Borges
1. “The Circular Ruins”: Prometheus and Pygmalion
2. “Death and the Compass”
3. “The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths”
4. “Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth”: Numbers 2, 3, and 4 deal with
Daedalus, Theseus, the Minotaur, and the story of Daedalus’ labyrinth.
Conrad
5. “The Secret Sharer”: Castor and Pollux, Narcissus, Orpheus and Eurydice
6. Heart of Darkness: Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, Charon, the Fates
Forster
7. “The Story of a Panic”: Pan, Nereids, Oreads, the Fates, Janus
8. “The Story of the Siren”: Odysseus, the Sirens
9. “Other Kingdom”: Apollo and Daphne, Arcadia, Midas, Naiads, Dryads
10. “The Road from Colonus”: Oedipus and Antigone, Hades, the Fates
Hawthorne
1. “Young Goodman Brown”: Devil myths.
2. “The Artist of the Beautiful”: Hephaestus, Prometheus, Aphrodite.
These twelve works also employ various archetypes, such as the hero, creation, water, and
certain shapes and colors—too numerous to mention here, but easily detected in the works
by the use of my “Myth and Archetypes” handout (see below).
Research Paper
In their research papers, students must refer to at least eight secondary sources, and there
must be at least one reference to Hamilton’s Mythology. These papers will have a thesis that
has something to do with the appearance of myth and/or archetypes in at least one work of
one of the four authors we have studied. In most cases, the students stick to the works
assigned in the class, but they are permitted to choose other works of the authors, with my
approval. I encourage them to go beyond what was said in class about the works, and this
usually and naturally happens because they have to discuss their secondary sources in
conjunction with the fiction they are writing about. The secondary sources, culled from
scholarly papers and books written by recognized literary critics, may or may not deal with
the myth and archetypes in the primary works, but, of course, they should be used to
support the students’ ideas (and students may disagree with the critics). I do not assign thesis
statements, but I have discussions with the students after they have read some secondary
sources on their author and they have come up with a working thesis. In these conferences I
help them to sharpen their thesis statements.
The following are some examples of thesis statements that I have received. In most
cases, the myths that appear in the fiction works alluded to have already been listed.
1. In “Death and the Compass,” Jorge Luis Borges pieces together a labyrinth of
mythical proportions. He uses geometric symmetry, conflicting characters, and
mythological allusions to show that the world itself is an eternal maze.
2. The use of symbolism and mythological allusions in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The
Artist of the Beautiful” and “Roger Malvin’s Burial” enriches the personalities of the
main characters, and the attributes of the implied mythological characters instill life
in Hawthorne’s characters. (In the latter story, there are characters that resemble
figures from the Old Testament—Reuben, Dorcas, Cyrus, Saul, and David.)
3. In Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad paints a shadowy picture, employing imagery and
thematic content which parallels that of Virgil’s epic tale, the Aeneid, in a way that
vilifies European imperialism in Africa and its resulting despair and removes the
romantic notions often associated with imperialism. Like that of the Roman poet
Virgil, Conrad’s intent was to censure the destruction of the life and land of the
“savages” by those from his own “civilized” society. (Heart of Darkness has been seen
by several critics as a re-creation of the sixth book of The Aeneid. There are many
details in Virgil’s description of Aeneas’ descent into the underworld that are
replicated by Conrad in his telling of Marlow’s journey to the Congo.)
4. E. M. Forster employs virtuous Hellenistic mythological figures to reveal the majesty
in otherwise insignificant, at times unnamed, characters in his stories, “The Road
from Colonus” and “The Story of the Siren.”
These examples show that students are asked to go beyond a simple pointing out of the
myths and archetypes in the modern works. Instead, they are asked to do a formalistic
analysis of the presence of these motifs, to justify their presence in the modern works.
Syllabus
Week 1
INTRODUCTION TO MYTH AND LITERATURE
Mythology, 13–47
Forster, “The Story of a Panic”
Week 2
INTRODUCTION TO LIBRARY RESEARCH
Research Writing Simplified, 1–11
Mythology, 41–43, 91–92, 107–109
Conrad, “The Secret Sharer”
Week 3
FINDING A TOPIC
Research, 12–14
Mythology, 48–64
Conrad, Heart of Darkness
Week 4
THESIS AND ARGUMENT
Heart of Darkness continued
Week 5
GATHERING EVIDENCE AND EVALUATING SOURCES
Research, 14–18
Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown”
Week 6
NOTE-TAKING AND ANALYSIS
Research, 19–26, 37–41
Mythology, 71–81, 112–115
Borges, “The Circular Ruins”
Week 7
PARAPHRASING AND PLAGIARISM
Mythology, 35, 107–109
Hawthorne, “The Artist of the Beautiful”
Week 8
SUMMARIZING
Research, 27–36
Mythology, 144–145, 157
Borges, “Death and the Compass”
MIDTERM
Week 9
DIRECT QUOTATION
Research, 42–48
Borges, “The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths”
“Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in His Labyrinth”
Week 10
THESIS AND OUTLINE
Research, 58–64
Mythology, 108, 119–120, 223–224
Forster, “The Story of the Siren”
“Other Kingdom”
THESIS AND OUTLINE DUE
Week 11
INTRODUCTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
Mythology, 268–277
Forster, “The Road from Colonus”
Week 12
WORKS CITED
Research, 49–57
Week 13
DOCUMENTATION REVIEW
Week 14
RESEARCH PAPERS DUE
Week 15
FINAL EXAM REVIEW
Week 16
FINAL EXAM
Sources
General Sources
I have a few favorite general sources aside from Hamilton’s Mythology that deal with myth
and archetype. The list that follows is by no means complete, but it contains a few classics
that you might be familiar with.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. Analyzes archetypes in fairy tales.
Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. Shows how myths are relevant today.
Evans, Oliver, and Harry Finestone. The World of the Short Story: Archetypes in Action. An
anthology of short stories with introductions discussing the archetypes contained in
them.
Frazer, James. The Golden Bough. A classic compendium of myth, archetypes, and ritual
in ancient and primitive societies.
Hughes, Richard E. The Lively Image: Four Myths in Literature. Analyzes the Narcissus,
Dionysus, Orpheus, and Christ myths in selected modern authors.
Jung, Carl, ed. Man and his Symbols. Jung is famous for his writings on archetypes; this
book has other contributors and great pictures illustrating the various archetypes.
Malinowski, Bronislaw. Magic, Science and Religion and Other Essays. The title essay
discusses Frazer and the importance of myth to the human psyche.
Weston, Jessie. From Ritual to Romance. The Holy Grail study that inspired Eliot’s poem
The Waste Land.
Sources on Individual Works
Ovid
Apollo and Daphne: Metamorphoses, Book 1
Midas: Metamorphoses, Book 11
Narcissus: Metamorphoses, Book 3
Orpheus and Eurydice: Metamorphoses, Book 10
Pygmalion: Metamorphoses, Book 10
Ovid, Metamorphoses:
http://classics.mit.edu/Ovid/metam.html
This is organized by books and seems to be the only viable web source.
A good lecture on the Metamorphoses is available at:
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/Ovid.htm
Apollodorus
Daedalus: Apollodorus’ Library
Theseus, Ariadne, Minotaur: Apollodorus’ Library
Apollodorus’ Library can be found as part of Tufts University Perseus Project at:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=toc;layout=;loc=1.1.1
The Theseus story is in Apollodorus’ Library, Book 3, Chapters 15–16:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=chapter%3D%2333;c
hunk=chapter;layout=;loc=3.15.1
and:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgibin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022;query=book%3D%234;chun
k=chapter;layout=;loc=3.16.1
Homer
Hephaestus and Aphrodite: Homer’s Odyssey, Book 12
Sirens: Homer’s Odyssey, Book 12
Search the full text at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext99/dyssy10.txt
A good lecture on Homer and the Odyssey can be found at:
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/Homer.htm
Sophocles
Oedipus: Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone
Project Gutenberg:
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/31
For a lecture on Oedipus, see:
http://www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/introser/oeds.htm
On Sophocles and the whole trilogy, especially Antigone, see:
http://www.queensu.ca/classics/clst101/clst101lect30.htm
Hesiod
Prometheus: Hesiod’s Theogony.
From the “ancientHistory” section at “about.com”:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_hesiod_theogony_5.htm
An excellent background for the Prometheus myth can be found at:
http://www.pathguy/com/promethe/htm
Some general notes on Greek myth and Hesiod can be found at:
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~jfarrell/courses/spring96/myth/jan17.html
Aeschylus
Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound
From the Internet Classics Archive:
http://classics.mit.edu/Aeschylus/prometheus.html
An excellent background for the Prometheus myth can be found at:
http://www.pathguy.com/promethe.htm
A good site for Aeschylus, including a link to a summary and analysis of Prometheus, is:
http://www.theatrehistory.com/ancient/aeschylus001.html
Virgil
Underworld: Virgil’s Aeneid, Book 6
From Bibliomania:
http://www.bibliomania.com/0/2/173/1106/frameset.html
Summary and analysis are available at Sparknotes:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/aeneid/
A more sophisticated site is:
http://ablemedia.com/ctcweb/netshots/vergil.htm
Borges
"The Circular Ruins": Prometheus and Pygmalion.
"Death and the Compass."
"The Two Kings and Their Two Labyrinths."
"Ibn Hakkan al-Bokhari, Dead in his Labyrinth." Numbers 2, 3, and 4 deal with
Daedalus, Theseus, the Minotaur, and the story of Daedalus’ labyrinth.
The most general Borges site:
http://www.themodernword.com/borges/
Conrad
"The Secret Sharer": Castor and Pollux, Narcissus, Orpheus and Eurydice.
Project Gutenberg version:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext97/agent10.txt
Cliffs Notes summary and analysis at:
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-8.html
Heart of Darkness: Demeter, Dionysus, Hades, Charon, the Fates.
Project Gutenberg version:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext95/hdark11.txt
Sparknotes summary and analysis:
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/heart/
A more sophisticated site is:
http://www.movelguide.com/heartof darkness/
Forster
"The Story of a Panic": Pan, Nereids, Oreads, the Fates, Janus.
"The Story of the Siren": Odysseus, the Sirens.
"Other Kingdom": Apollo and Daphne, Arcadia, Midas, Naiads, Dryads.
"The Road from Colonus": Oedipus and Antigone, Hades, the Fates.
A general site for E. M. Forster is:
http://forster.thefreelibrary.com/
Hawthorne
"Young Goodman Brown": Devil myths.
"The Artist of the Beautiful": Hephaestus, Prometheus, Aphrodite.
Both of these stories are in Hawthorne’s collection Mosses from an Old Manse, which can
be found at:
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext96/manse10.txt
An interesting read: Melville’s review of Mosses from an Old Manse
http://www.eldritchpress.org/nh/hahm.html
“Myth and Archetypes” Handout
One source I have put together is a “cheat sheet” of archetypes, with a few paragraphs on
myth as well. Students have found this handout quite useful. We use it for reference in class,
and they are allowed to use it in their research papers as well. It appears in its entirety below.
Myths
Some definitions of “myth” are the following:
“In classical Greek, ‘mythos’ signified any story or plot, whether true or false. In its central
modern significance, a myth is one story in a mythology—a system of hereditary stories
which were once believed to be true by a particular cultural group, and which served to
explain (in terms of the intentions and actions of supernatural beings) why the world is as it
is and things happen as they do, and to establish the rationale for social customs and
observances and the sanctions for the rules by which men conduct their lives.” M. H.
Abrams, A Glossary of Literary Terms (1971), 102.
“Myth is to be defined as a complex of stories—some no doubt fact, and some fantasy—
which, for various reasons, human beings regard as demonstrations of the inner meaning of
the universe and of human life.” Alan W. Watts, Myth and Ritual in Christianity (1954), 7.
“Myth is fundamental, the dramatic representation of our deepest instinctual life, of a
primary awareness of man in the universe, capable of many configurations, upon which all
particular opinions and attitudes depend.” Mark Schorer, William Blake: The Politics of Vision
(1946), 29.
Myth “is a direct metaphysical statement beyond science. It embodies in an articulated
structure of symbol or narrative a vision of reality. It is a condensed account of man’s Being
and attempts to represent reality with structural fidelity, to indicate at a single stroke the
salient and fundamental relations which for a man constitute reality . . . Myth is not an
obscure, oblique, or elaborate way of expressing reality—it is the only way.” George Walley,
Poetic Process (1953).
“Myth is the expression of a profound sense of togetherness—a togetherness not merely
upon the plane of the intellect . . . but a togetherness of feeling and of action and of
wholeness of living.” Philip Wheelwright in The Language of Poetry, edited by Alan Tate, 11.
“Mythical motifs and images are called ‘archetypes’ when they are found among many
different mythologies and when they recur among peoples widely separated in time and
place. Also, they tend to have a common meaning or tend to elicit comparable psychological
responses and to serve similar cultural functions. [The archetypal symbols] are those which
carry the same or very similar meanings for a large portion, if not all, of mankind. It is a
discoverable fact that certain symbols, such as the sky father and earth mother, light, blood,
up-down, the axis of a wheel, and others, recur again and again in cultures so remote from
one another in space and time that there is no likelihood of any historical influences and
causal connection among them.” Philip Wheelwright, Metaphor and Reality (1962), 111.
Archetypes
The following are some examples of archetypes and symbolic meanings.
Images
1. Water: the mystery of creation; birth-death-resurrection; purification and redemption;
fertility and growth. According to Carl Jung, water is also the most common symbol
of the unconscious.
a. The sea: the mother of all life; spiritual mystery; infinity; death and rebirth;
timelessness and eternity; the unconscious.
b. Rivers: also death and rebirth (baptism); the flowing of time into eternity;
transitional phases of the life cycle; incarnations of deities.
2. Sun (fire and sky are closely related): creative energy; law in nature; consciousness
(thinking, enlightenment, wisdom, spiritual vision); father principle (moon and earth
tend to be associated with female or mother principle); passage of time and life.
a. Rising sun: birth; creation; enlightenment.
b. Setting sun: death.
3. Colors:
a. Black (darkness): chaos (mystery, the unknown); death; the unconscious; evil;
melancholy.
b. Red: blood, sacrifice; violent passion; disorder.
c. Green: growth; sensation; hope.
4. Circle (sphere, egg): wholeness; unity; God as infinite; life in primordial form; union of
consciousness and the unconscious—for example, the yang-yin of Chinese art and
philosophy, which combines in the circle the yang (male) element (consciousness,
life, light, and heat) with the yin (female) element (the unconscious, death, darkness,
and cold).
5. The archetypal woman (including the Jungian anima):
a. The great mother, good mother, earth mother; associated with birth, warmth,
protection, fertility, growth, abundance; the unconscious.
b. The terrible mother; the witch, sorceress, siren—associated with fear, danger, and
death.
c. The soul-mate; the princess or “beautiful lady”—incarnation of inspiration and
spiritual fulfillment.
6. Wind (and breath): inspiration; conception; soul or spirit.
7. Ship: microcosm; mankind’s voyage through space and time.
8. Garden: paradise; innocence; unspoiled beauty (especially feminine); fertility.
9. Desert: spiritual aridity; death; nihilism or hopelessness.
Motifs or Patterns
1. Creation: this is perhaps the most fundamental of all archetypal motifs; virtually every
mythology is built on some account of how the cosmos, nature, and people were
brought into existence by some supernatural being or beings.
2. Immortality: another fundamental archetype, generally taking one of two basic narrative
forms:
a. Escape from time: the “return to paradise,” the state of perfect, timeless bliss
enjoyed by people before their tragic fall into corruption and mortality.
b. Mystical submersion into cyclical time: the theme of endless death and
regeneration—people achieve a kind of immortality by submitting to the vast,
mysterious rhythm of nature’s eternal cycle, particularly the cycle of the
seasons.
3. Hero archetypes (archetypes of transformation and redemption):
a. The quest: the hero (savior or deliverer) undertakes some long journey during
which he must perform impossible tasks, battle with monsters, solve
unanswerable riddles, and overcome insurmountable obstacles in order to save
the kingdom and perhaps marry the princess.
b. Initiation: the hero undergoes a series of excruciating ordeals in passing from
ignorance and immaturity to social and spiritual adulthood, that is, in achieving
maturity and becoming a full-fledged member of his social group. The
initiation most commonly consists of three stages or phases: (1) separation, (2)
transformation, and (3) return. Like the quest, this is a variation of the deathand-rebirth archetype.
c. The sacrificial scapegoat: the hero, with whom the welfare of the tribe or nation is
identified, must die in order to atone for the people’s sins and restore the land
to fruitfulness.
Archetypal Phases
Northrop Frye in Fables of Identity (1963) provides the following table of archetypal phases
with corresponding literary types:
1. The dawn, spring, and birth phase. Myths of the birth of the hero, of revival and
resurrection, of creation, and (because the four phases are a cycle) of the defeat of
the powers of darkness, winter, and death. Subordinate characters: the father and the
mother. The archetype of romance and of most dithyrambic and rhapsodic poetry.
2. The zenith, summer, and marriage or triumph phase. Myths of apotheosis, of the
sacred marriage, and of entering into paradise. Subordinate characters: the
companion and the bride. The archetype of comedy, pastoral, and idyll.
3. The sunset, autumn, and death phase. Myths of fall, of the dying god, of violent death
and sacrifice, and of the isolation of the hero. Subordinate characters: the traitor and
the siren. The archetype of tragedy and elegy.
4. The darkness, winter, and dissolution phase. Myths of the triumph of these powers;
myths of floods and the return of chaos, of the defeat of the hero. Subordinate
characters: the ogre and the witch. The archetype of satire.